MerseyGrey

Congratulations! She is gorgeous! Did you find a squeak free toy to stop her from driving you all bonkers?

I need to work on my ‘voice of God’. We are definitely more ‘sing-song ‘scuse me!’ In our house, but when Buds turns and looks at me as if to say ‘yes?’, we apologise profusely and shuffle around him. At which point he normally moves into the space I’m trying to get into and the scenario plays over again 🙄. Spoilt dog? I don’t know what you mean...

I don’t know about what caused the other dogs’ scabs but we ours had similar sounding, blistering scabs after a trip on a canal barge here in the U.K., and the vet said it was probably a bacterial infection from dirty water. He hadn’t been in the water and we don’t think we splashed him but we may have touched him with wet hands and this must have been enough. However, Buddy’s scabs looked most like the first picture posted and nowhere near as extensive as the photo you have posted. Presumably you’ve taken yours to the vet; what have they said? The good news was they cleared up after a week on antibiotics and we got some medicated shampoo to use frequently. I hope you solve your mystery as it looks very sore ☹️

I can’t believe that you guys talk to your dogs like this no wonder they get upset 🙄

I agree that shouting at him won’t help, he’ll sneak off and do it quietly where you won’t be able to shout at him. The trick really is to catch him just before he does it and then shoo him outside but it will mean keeping a very close eye on him for a while. The night-time pooping - is he warm enough? Could something like a boiler coming on be disturbing him? If he wakes up during the night for one reason, he might just decide that he’s up anyway so he’ll have a poo. When you say he won’t walk at night, what time are you taking him out? We walk ours first thing (5.30am 😵) and then at around 4pm. Usually this is enough for him and he can go through the night without pooping until the morning. We let him out for a last wee before bed too. We do have occasional accidents which we can’t always explain but mostly we don’t wake up to be greeted by ‘kitchen apples’. Final thought - is his worming up to date? We seem to have more accidents towards the end of the month when he is due to be wormed. And absolutely finally, check your cleaning fluid (and at your parents) and make sure it’s ammonia free as this could be encouraging this behaviour.

Hello Odie’s mum (or dad - I always assume everyone on here is woman at first, don’t know why!). I’m sorry you’re having such a hard time at the start of your relationship with your hound. I think Greysmom’s suggestion of a couple of nights on the sofa with your hound sounds like a good idea so that she knows you’re around and not going anywhere might help Odie feel a bit more settled. Whichever room she sleeps in, consider the position of her bed. My boy’s favourite bed is in a corner, enclosed on three sides (and we have recently added an old mattress topper to his pile of bedding which he loves to snuggle into). Do you know anything about her history? Presumably at 7 years old yours is not the first home that she has been in so maybe your adoption group can shed a little light on her previous behaviour. Buddy was 7 1/2 when we adopted him and from the first night with us he has slept downstairs and never disturbed us, which made us assume that he’d been in a home before ours. The only time we considered having him in the bedroom with us was when we went on holiday, but he scratched and fidgeted so much that we turfed him out after about an hour and he spent the rest of the holiday in the living room at night. I think that it is very much personal choice about where you chose to train her to sleep and that having her in your bedroom overnight is probably a lot more common than it used to be in the U.K. I think that greyhounds seem to be a lot more clingy than other dog breeds and certainly mine will follow me from room to room, practically asleep on his feet at times but determined not to miss out on anything! He wants to be near us, preferably touching, and failing that he must be able to see us. this changed a little with his new bed and he is now (two years into his life with us) willing to sleep there rather than at our feet. The Buddy alarm is also very reliable and goes off at 5.27 each morning so early mornings are in your future while you have a greyhound! You already know how rewarding it is to have your new companion. Things do get easier with time, but the more people with greyhounds that you can talk to, the better. Maybe your adoption group can put you in touch with other owners in your area who you can meet with. Is there a great global greyhound walk organised for near you where you can meet people? Even if they can’t help you directly with this problem, they might just share war stories and make you feel a bit better! Good luck!

I used this book after recommendations on here and it has certainly helped my dog become more tolerant. I got it on kindle and it was a very quick and simple read. Your pup is a big fluffy cutie! I love the fuzzy ones!

Happy birthday Petunia! Hope you’re having a great day full of treats and naps

I’m sorry for your loss. I hope hugs from Larry help to heal your hearts

We’ve had some success with the type of training you’ve suggested. You will find it much easier without the muzzle but you could always use long thin treats which you can push through the muzzle. Start by getting his attention (watch me!) when there are no dogs around, and if he looks to you, give him a treat. Practice this. Then you can start doing it when there are dogs in the distance and see if you can still get his attention. You will then do it when the strange dogs are closer. Eventually your dog will start to look at you whenever he sees another dog. It won’t work every time, but you can gauge his reaction and work out when the situation is getting to be too much for him. We muzzled our boy for the first 9 months or so of having him, and found out by accident when we forgot to muzzle him on a holiday that he is much better around other dogs without it. He can still be nervous around other dogs, but I firmly believe that when he is wearing a muzzle he is reactive in order to keep other dogs away, which causes the other dog to respond the same way, then Buddy reacts to that and the situation escalates. Remove the muzzle (which you can look at as a means to protect hapless squirrels and rabbits, or a cage which prevents him from being able to defend himself), and you take away Buddy’s initial reaction, which allows dogs to approach him in a more civilised manner. Now I make it clear that my dog can be a bit of a nark (whereby Buddy will almost always behave impeccably) to other dog owners whose dogs are off the lead and it’s up to them. Occasionally he will snap if the other dog is impolite - for example, jumping on his face or running towards him excitedly - but in nine meetings out of ten, Buddy is a gentleman who will sniff politely or stand and wait out the investigations of the other dog. I do however try to intercept dogs that are running at him as I know that will most likely end in failure and I only really want to praise him so I try and set the situation up to be a success. It really is important to watch how your dog reacts so you can see if he is becoming overwhelmed by the attention from other dogs, and as I said, he may still snap but you will learn to distinguish this as a ‘warning shot’ rather than an attack on the other dog. This is very good behaviour if your dog does this. It shows that he is asserting his boundaries and is showing restraint. If you have someone who you can walk the dog with while you practice you might find it easier and you both learn together. Good luck!

It’s in the calendar! Christmas will really come early for Buddy, whose birthday is at the beginning of November. Thank you for giving me another reason to spoil him rotten!

While your intentions are good, I think that it sounds like you already know that a dog might not be a good fit for your family at the moment. Your daughter is only eight years old so it sounds like something you should put on hold until she’s matured more and can understand the consequences of her actions better, and maybe revisit this in four or five years time...or when she’s left home for college/university! If her behaviour is deteriorating because she is (consciously or subconsciously) worrying that she might lose some of your attention if you adopt a pet, you really don’t want involve a dog of any kind in this in case she uses the dog to get your attention. Deal with your daughter first, then you can start to think about adding a dog to your family when you know that you can give an ex-working dog a peaceful, loving, relaxed and safe retirement

I am a bit late to this party but I knew last Monday that we would be having a rare visit to one of our favourite chippies today. These are not quite fries but the British equivalent, and I can see that Buddy is getting into the spirit, and with very little coaxing ps when the chip disappears upwards, this is Dan doing a temperature check to make sure it’s not too hot for his fur baby, and the high pitch giggle is me, sounding more like Delores Umbridge from Harry Potter with every passing day

She is beautiful! I love her big ears and her amber eyes 😍

You could be surprised. Our boy does not attempt the stairs in our house, but when we went on holiday earlier in the year, we stayed in a cabin which was reached by about thirty steps. He bounded up and down them without any problems. Back at home, he still doesn’t try to go upstairs. Nothing is insurmountable but you might like to have some high value treats on hand to coax your pup upstairs. Lots of patience, positive reinforcement and a willingness to carry your new roomie up and down for a while if necessary.

This story about Doc is lovely 😍

I’ve never heard of it but one regular GreyTalker swears by Bazuka, the verruca gel, which is easy to pick up at any Boots/Superdrug. If you really want Jack’s Gel, maybe try Amazon as you can usually find whatever you want on there

Somebody posted in another thread recently about a toy that their dog loved which had a squeak audible only to dogs...can’t remember the details but I think the dog was possessive/aggressive over the toy, which was taken away. If you can find the thread, maybe you could ask them? She’s another beauty, by the way! And the squeaking doesn’t seem to be bothering Bette!

What a lovely way to remember her!

Hello and welcome to the wonderful world/cult of owning a greyhound! If you haven’t already got one, you could buy your boy a coat for night times. It sounds ridiculous at this time of year but we have a coat on ours currently overnight as the temperature drops quite a bit. This could be causing him to be disturbed during the night. I’m a bit further south than you and it chilly here - typical British summer. Greyhounds need their sleep. Think of them as essentially being cats which look like pointy dogs. Buddy will wake up from a seven hour sleep overnight, have a half hour walk and after breakfast he will settle down and sleep until our lunch time if allowed. It’s amazing how quickly he changes from a lively, playful and puppy-like dog to looking like he hasn’t slept for several days. There are ways to train your pup over the next few weeks while you’re on school holidays to minimise the chance of separation anxiety - I haven’t needed to do it so can’t help you with this but I’m sure others will chime in. The following you everywhere - get used to it! You have a new shadow, and for me, it’s only really been during this lockdown spell that Buddy has decided that trailing me from room to room and sticking his nose into everything is not as interesting and rewarding as it used to be. We’ve had him for two happy years. (I’ve heard a rumour that girls are a bit less clingy). We found the first few weeks very stressful as we worried about everything and anything that a normal person could worry about, and invented things on days that were going well. It gets easier, and you learn to relax a bit more. I hope you both get a good night’s sleep, and things will look better for both of you afterwards. Good luck!

Mine halts when he wants to go a particular way too, or if there is something interesting going on because he is very nosey. We have four ways of dealing with it: a quick loud ‘come on’ with a tug of the lead as HeyRunDog with Grace, wait it out for a bit, walk him in a big circle plus/minus using our bodies to guide him round to my direction, and when all else fails, bribery! We show him a treat and encourage him to walk in the direction we want him to go in, and that usually starts him off again. Oh - there is an option five too, which is just go the way he wants to go (my boy is spoilt and gets his way an awful lot). I’m a lot firmer with him if he’s making a nuisance of himself to other people by being stubborn(e.g. trying to climb in their car), and I found that using a harness helps a lot with controlling him. Your guy is gorgeous and he looks like a big cuddle monster!

Such a beautiful tribute for a special girl who gave you lots of happy memories. I’m sorry for your loss 😢

Oh happy birthday Bea! You’re certainly being spoiled, just like you deserve! And hugs and special thoughts to mum and the rest of the campers from Buddy and family xx

We can’t be the only people who have had a wee in the garden to encourage our hound to do the same...can we? He’s a boy though and likes to have the last word so I don’t know if it will work with a girl. If you’ve had two hounds previously you’ll already know that each can be very different but it must be hard to accept some quirks and traits if your others have been easy to deal with. I’m sure she’ll come out of her shell with time.

I would start by finding out what he is being fed currently as you will need to continue that for a short while at least and then you can think about transitioning him onto whatever diet you would like to try. Lots of people like a raw diet for their pooch but you don’t have to feed meat. Mine is on kibble and is healthy with a lovely coat. We fed him royal Canin for most of his two years with us but have recently switched him to a food sold through the Greyhound Trust here in the UK after a recommendation from someone on GreyTalk, which he enjoys just as much. I think the diet that you give will be influenced by your dog’s response to that food (including the effect it has on his digestive system) and what is convenient for you. I’m not sure about mixing raw and kibble in the diet - I think I read that you wouldn’t mix them in the same meal, but to be honest I’ve not been very adventurous with Buddy’s diet so I would be interested in the responses you get too. I also love that you’ve casually chucked in about feeding your dog ‘roo’, which is an exotic meat for us in Blighty!